Tag Archives: medicare

Without a change in law or policy, the gap between the amount of money the federal government collects and the amount it spends will continue to grow, likely reaching $1 trillion in the next few years. We issued our third … Continue reading →

An air ambulance may save your life in an emergency, but it could cost you thousands of dollars—even if you have health insurance. In today’s WatchBlog, we look at a recent GAO report on air ambulance services and explore how … Continue reading →

GAO’s workforce is organized largely by subject area, with most employees working in one of our 15 mission teams. Today we’ll be putting the spotlight on our Information Technology & Cybersecurity (ITC) team, which helps the government respond to the … Continue reading →

Nearly 60 million elderly and disabled people count on Medicare for health care coverage. Without the program, they and their families could be responsible for billions of dollars of health care costs. Medicare spent about $700 billion in 2017 and … Continue reading →

Over 14 million Medicare participants received opioid prescriptions in 2016—which cost the government over $4 billion. Because of the recent increase in opioid overdoses, Medicare monitors participants that might be overutilizing opioids. However, we found that there are more Medicare … Continue reading →

Today, U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro delivered testimony to Congress on our nation’s unsustainable long-term fiscal position. He said that the Congress and administration face serious economic, security, and social challenges that will require difficult policy choices in the short … Continue reading →

Since 2011, we’ve outlined actions federal agencies and Congress can take to reduce fragmentation, overlap, and duplication in federal programs and activities—work that resulted in $56 billion in financial benefits to the federal government between fiscal years 2010 and 2015 … Continue reading →

If you have Medicare, this time of year always brings an opportunity to switch health plans during the annual open enrollment period, which starts this weekend and runs through December 7. About 30% of Medicare participants choose Medicare Advantage plans—the … Continue reading →